The Sparksight Guide to Video Acronyms

To many marketing professionals, video production can be a confusing field. Videographers spend many years fully immersed in their field, one that is full of specialized creative skills. And just like any highly specialized profession, video production is full of jargon and confusing video acronyms. To help you with your next project, we’ve put together a handy guide that outlines and explains the most common video acronyms and terms.

Video Acronyms can be confusing… So, let’s break it down:

POV

Point-of-View. This video acronym refers to the video style that mimics the way a person would see the scene through their own eyes. POV video can refer to videos shot like the movie “Hardcore Henry,” which shows the character’s hands and follows their action. That being said, this video style can be slightly less involved and take the form of simply mimicking a person moving through a room. 

FPV

First-person view. This video acronym refers to the video style that immerses the viewer by displaying the scene as if they are viewing it in real life. FPV can be used interchangeably with POV (see above).

VO

Voice Over. This video acronym refers to the unseen narrator of a video contextualizing the images that the viewer sees on-screen. Voice overs are typically recorded by a professional voice actor, or a member of the videography team, depending on your video’s budget. A well-recorded video voice over is vital in order to tie your video together and drive home your message.

DSLR

Digital Single-Lens Reflex. This video acronym refers to an industry-standard camera technology in the video production and photography worlds. Also referred to as a “digital SLR”, the DSLR camera is a multi-purpose tool that suits the creative needs of the large majority of video production clients.

FPS

Frames per second. This video acronym refers to the number of video images that are displayed per second of video. FPS is the quantitative measure of the frame rate. Frame rate is one of the key metrics for video quality, with a higher value corresponding to higher-quality video that is more pleasing to the viewers. The universal standard for film and movie theaters is 24 fps, while 60 fps is the fame rate standard for recording with high definition cameras.

480/720/1080p

Shorthand for the resolution of a video. These video acronyms refer to the ratio of pixels displayed on a screen when viewing rich media content like video or photos. The resolution depends on both the hardware (the screen used for viewing) and the ratio of pixels recorded in the initial photo or video shoot. Most YouTube videos these days are played in at least 480p, while 720p refers to the minimum resolution for high-definition (HD) video. Many high-end cell phone and laptop computer screens feature 1080p Full HD screens or better.

Pixel

Picture element. This abbreviation has been around for so long that even some young high-tech professionals are unaware that it’s a portmanteau for picture element. The term refers to the smallest individual component of an image that is displayed on a screen. The higher the resolution of an image or video, the smaller are the pixels displayed. A common way of demonstrating pixels is by taking a small image and zooming into it so that it is much larger than the original size.

MP4

MPEG-4. The MPEG is a video acronym that refers to the agency that sets digital standards for video containers. What you, as a digital marketer, need to know about this abbreviation is that it refers to one of the most common industry standards for digital video. This type of video is commonly accepted for uploading to YouTube and other hosting sites, and can be viewed using a variety of video playback software.

Kbps

Kilobits per second. This video acronym refers to the metric used to measure bit rate, or data rate. This refers to the amount of data used for each second of the video playback. The lower this number, the less work that the computer has to do to play the video. The bit rate also directly impacts the file size of the video, with high bit rate videos occupying much more storage on the computer. If the video is compressed too much in order to reduce the bit rate, the playback resolution may suffer.

What video acronyms or jargon have you encountered in your work in digital marketing? Leave us a comment below!